Saturday, November 19, 2011

A Rare Negative Review for Skyward Sword...and I love it

I'll come right out and say it. I've been off the Nintendo bandwagon for so long that I have started to actively root against anything the company puts out. I'm not exactly sure why; I have so many wonderful gaming memories from Nintendo franchises in the 8, 16, and 64-bit era. At heart, though, I've always been a PC gamer, and now that Western developers have flooded consoles with their PC influenced games, I've found my tolerance for Japanese style games has dropped through the floor. Add to this the nearly fanatical, Apple-like devotion that some hold for Nintendo products, and I find myself actively disliking a company that projects an image of superiority and arrogance. After all the hype I've been hearing about The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, I found it gratifying to come across a review that excoriates this latest recycle job for a myriad of disastrous design decisions. A taste:

The more I played Skyward Sword the less I liked it. Like many Nintendo games or even consoles, there are some core features and gimmicks that can be entertaining under very specific circumstances, yet they’re utterly bogged down by obsolete conventions, repetitious filler, and undeniable proof that the Wiimote flat-out doesn’t work as a viable replacement for a standard controller...Even when the many flaws or ineffective controls aren’t getting in the way, it’s all just so familiar. Skyward Sword imitates not only other, better role-playing games and past Mario/Zelda titles, but it also copies and pastes massive chunks of content from within itself as well. I know that fans and Wii loyalists will rabidly delight in this game, but until Nintendo learns some new tricks or, at the very least, can keep up with other modern day developers, I think I’ve finally, reluctantly, outgrown the Zelda series.